CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM PASTOR 2016

Did you ever have anyone come along and change your plans. I mean you are ready to head out the door, and the phone rings, and there is a need or a problem, and boom your plans change.

Well, if you want to think about changing plans, think about Mary and Joseph. They are engaged, thinking about getting married and starting a normal life and a normal family and along comes an Angel. Boy, did their plans change. Now, with the announcement of the Angel, Mary is already pregnant, and it is not Joseph’s child. It’s God’s. They aren’t married, and in those days pregnancy out of wedlock could cost you your life. I don’t think we can imagine how scared Mary and Joseph must have been. But please notice that it all worked out, and it all worked out not just for the best, but for the greatest. Why? Because the plan in motion was God’s plan. A plan to bring salvation to the world through that little baby that Mary was carrying. A plan to bring forgiveness to a broken and hopeless world. Yes, God changed their plans, but what wondrous events they were able to witness. To see God’s hand at work in the world, and to see it first hand! That may have been a change of plans, but it turned out to be quite a blessing for Mary, Joseph, you, me and the whole world.

If God was going to mess up someone’s plans, I am not sure He could have done it for any greater wonder or in any greater way. My hope and my prayer is that maybe we let God mess up our plans a little bit. That we allow him to remind us of what He did for us that very first Christmas, that amid all of the shopping, eating and gatherings, that God will warm our hearts and remind us of His son that was born to give us salvation, and that we adjust our plans to celebrate His gift and His wonder at Christmas. Maybe we will see that it is all right for God to mess up our plans.